About the showSpike TV describes “American Digger” as an “unscripted series” that uncovers “hidden treasure found in the backyards of everyday Americans.” The 13-show series is to premiere at 10 p.m. March 20 on Spike TV.

No word yet on which date the St. Augustine segment may air.

About the host“I started into relics and American History and Military History when I was about in second or third grade. I’ve been a history buff my whole life. Wrestling was something I did as an afterthought because I ran into a friend of mine who had a little wrestling school. I had just gotten out of the Army and didn’t have anything to do. The history thing has been there the whole time.”

Cable show host pleased with relics found in St. Augustine, scoffs at critics

But a St. Augustine archaeologist calls the methods 'almost sacrilege.'

The host of a new Spike TV show said he is happy about the finds his crew made while digging in St. Augustine in early February, including finding what he said is Spanish gold and Civil War relics.

Former pro wrestler and “American Digger” TV show host Ric Savage said his crew of relic hunters uncovered “a plethora of artifacts that spanned a pretty decent time range … some related to the Spanish settlements back in the 1500s to 1600s” while filming the show on private property.

Savage and Spike declined to say where they were able to dig, other than that it was private property.

City of St. Augustine archaeologist Carl Halbirt called the digging “almost like sacrilege, in a way.”

“There are sacred spaces in American history and unless you give proper diligence to documenting what’s there, you are essentially going in and being like a thief of time.”

Savage disagreed.

“Diggers are looked on as the trailer trash of the archaeology community and the archaeologists are thought of as the brains but that’s not necessarily the truth,” Savage said. “The higher the education people get, the higher the snobbishness that goes along with it.”

Spike TV describes the show, which is to premier March 20, as an “unscripted series” that uncovers “hidden treasure found in the backyards of everyday Americans.”

Spike spokeswoman Shana Tepper said no date has yet been set for the St. Augustine segment.

Savage said one of his biggest finds was a “splash of gold,” or a piece of gold that a Spaniard had cut off and melted into an imprint, and Spike TV shared a photo of the find.

But Halbirt is skeptical.

He said little gold from the Spanish period has been found here, and what has is usually a small pin, nothing large.

And what gold has been found over the last several decades has had a patina.

“A hunk of metal that must weigh a quarter size of his fist, that’s quit a hunk of metal there,” Halbirt says. “It looks like gold paint on lead.”

'Passion' for diggingSavage said that he takes a few moments to appreciate whatever is found, then sells it to local antique shops. The homeowners get a portion of the proceeds.

“It may only be worth $2 or $3 to a collector but the last person to touch it was a solider, Union or Confederate 150 years ago,” Savage said. “That’s as close to history you can get. That’s the passion of it.”

But in a town as historic as St. Augustine, the practice raised more than a little outcry from archaeologists who protested that digging that way — as opposed to careful, recorded excavation — damages the historical record and could lead to a loss of information.

But amateur “diggers” and metal detector enthusiasts argue that they are adding to history with their finds, and don’t need a degree to do it.

Savage said that he has been a digger for decades, documents his finds, and that diggers such as himself are responsible for reference manuals to such artifacts.

Halbirt said he worries over the loss of other things besides relics that don’t get cataloged such as bones from a midden, fragments of ceramic or shards from glass bottles.

“They’re looking for metal,” he said. But the rest is valuable context that can tell stories about the occupation of a site.

And it is easy to destroy.

“It does create a visceral type of response,” Halbirt said.

Savage said that diggers are able to recover relics “that are rotting in the ground and never be found” as archaeologists wait for grants or for construction to trigger an excavation.

Halbirt pooh-poohed that.

“If I don’t do it, it will never be found: That is a very self-absorbed type of mentality,” Halbirt said.

He said such shows set a bad example.

“People have an option here,” Halbirt said. “If you don’t watch it, they don’t get the ratings and it goes off the air.”

'Throwing rocks'Savage is used to hearing such debate, though, and expects to get it on all sides, including from metal-detecting enthusiasts looking to dig themselves.

That’s because the show seeks to compensate homeowners for the right to dig on their land, leading to a precedent.

“We get it from both sides,” Savage said. “No matter what you do, no matter how wonderful you do it and how great it serves the world, there is always going to be someone throwing rocks at you because they are not doing it.”

Either way, Savage liked shooting in St. Augustine.

“It’s a beautiful city,” Savage said. “We enjoyed it, we enjoyed the fort, walking around and looking at all the beautiful architecture.

“It was pretty impressive,” Savage said. “I didn’t realize how well the city had maintained the historical integrity.”

Being an archaeologist with the education to properly find, excavate, record and document artifacts does not make us snobs, it helps everyone (including the public) to appreciate the full historical context of what is found archaeologically. We are trained to share our findings with the public as part of our mission. Finding an artifact is a wonderful thing, but once you take it out of the ground its context is lost forever. The seemingly less valuable and interesting materials around the artifact—even the soils—tell us a lot more than just the flashy artifact. This is the true value of archaeology. Insulting archaeologists and encouraging people to focus on the monetary value of artifacts defeats the purpose of sharing history by focusing only on the “cool” stuff found and ignoring all the other information that can be gained. These “diggers” are only interested in making money and gaining prestige from artifacts, and encourage others to do the same by ignoring all the time, effort and education put in by real archaeologists to learn the most about the past.

Offering money to property owners for digging up artifacts sets a bad precedent. Teaching property owners about the true historic value of the artifacts found on their property actually is more beneficial, and I have found that in general most people are excited and happy to share without financial compensation. And as for recovering "relics 'that are rotting in the ground and never be found'", it is much safer to leave artifacts in the ground rather than digging them up improperly. Unless they are exposed by construction or other means, they won't be going anywhere, and stay safe until they can be properly excavated and recorded.

Savage is trying to paint archaeologists elitist snobs, while the reality is that professional archaeologists (who largely have only a Bachelors, and some great field archaeologists do not even have that) are people who work their bodies to the bone doing excavation the right way - with trowels, with shovels, with picks and mattocks. They dig around the artifacts carefully and preserve fencepost holes, house floors, pits, and other delicate features intact. They care about all the artifacts they recover, not just the metal. They record the context in which various items are found - which is 90% of the useful information from a dig. They write money into their budgets to cover correct conservation of valuable and nonvaluable artifacts alike, and they curate collections into museums and universities so that they can be analyzed by other people.

If anything, what Savage is doing is elitist - only the "valuable" artifacts are preserved, and they are being sold off so that only people who can afford antiques with benefit from them. Savage is preying on people's worst instincts to get a quick buck by tearing up their yards in search of treasure - they will likely get a few bottles worth $40, while he gets a show to promote his terrible business.

What Mr. Savage is doing is opening people's eyes as how close they are actually living to history. What better way to introduce a child to an appreciatipon of the history of St. Augustine than to show her/him that its right there in the back yard. I wonder if Mr.Halbirt's first endevor into archeology was a thorough documentation and preservation of a relic from a midden? He prolly had no idea what a midden was at the time. By using the term midden in an article in the newspaper, knowing very well that most readers would not know what it is shows a definate smugness on his part. Mr. Savages is sharing his 'finds' with a very broad audience. I would expect that Mr. Halbrit's finds are only shared with a small circle of like minded individuals. Our past belongs to us all, not a select few. I would guess that there are quite a number of amateur archeologists in the St. Augustine/Jacksonville area who got their start when construction of the interstate through downtown Jax exposed the old city dump. Would Mr. frown on that too?